Posts Tagged ‘Andy Coulson’

Tom Watson: Who paid Andy Coulson’s legal fees?

12/12/2010, 01:00:43 PM

If you can’t see the letter in the document viewer below, the plain text version is here.

Gus O Donnell Andy Coulson Legal Fees

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Andy Coulson is not J Edgar Hoover

12/12/2010, 09:36:23 AM

By Dan McCurry

J Edgar Hoover originally brought scandal upon himself when he worked in the private sector. However, he was saved from his disgrace when the US president offered him a job as his head of communications. As the holder of one of the most powerful civilian ranks in the US government, he answered directly to the president without the constraint of civil service accountability to stand in his way.

That paragraph is, of course, ridiculous. Why would anyone hire the disgraced J Edgar Hoover? Who in their right mind would be interested in a man whose view of the private lives of others was so contemptible that he bugged thousands of public figures? Not for national security reasons, but to pursue his own selfish ends.

Of all people, why would the US president hire J Edgar Hoover after he came to public notoriety following a bugging and deception scandal? A scandal that sent people around him to jail and over which he only narrowly avoided prosecution. It is inconceivable.

Yet that is exactly what David Cameron did when he hired Andy Coulson. There then followed a spate of bugging and burglary scandals involving the Tory party as beneficiaries. Questions were asked. The Guardian investigated. (more…)

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Coulson’s imminent departure is just the beginning

23/11/2010, 07:00:12 AM

by Tom Watson

Andy Coulson will resign as Downing Street communications director within the next few weeks. When the moment comes, his powerful but embarrassed friends will breathe a sigh of relief. They want it to be the end of the phone hacking scandal. It is just the beginning.

For, as any investigative journalist will tell you, it’s always the cover up that sinks you. Senior executives have been clinging onto the line that “Clive Goodman was a rogue reporter” like it was a life belt on the Titanic. The unanswered questions are pouring in.

There is a police investigation and at least three court cases. There are two Parliamentary enquiries on top of a damning report by the media select committee. There are whistleblowers. Insiders are breaking ranks, beginning to talk. Shareholders are asking questions. Coulson may be on his way, but the story won’t go away, despite hardly being reported in some of the best-selling newspapers.

There will be adverse criticism of the Prime Minister’s judgement, but, frankly, that’s a side show. In the degenerate world of Westminster politics, Coulson was a “success”. He got Cameron into number 10. He served his master well. Now it’s over, a lucrative, if unrewarding, career in PR awaits him, whatever the various enquiries hold for him in the short term. (more…)

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The tonnes of bad news the Tories tried to bury yesterday

17/11/2010, 07:22:33 AM

by Tom Watson

David Cameron’s press team didn’t just bury bad news yesterday, they built a mass grave and emptied a juggernaut of trash into it.

Back in January, Cameron proclaimed he would “end the culture of spin”. Even at the time, people sniggered. If he said it now, they’d fall about laughing.

Yesterday, the government released masses of information that in normal circumstances would have led the news today. Royal marriages are once in a generation after all.

The manner in which the announcements poured out yesterday was cynical, determined and ruthless. Will the government get away with it? Probably.

Our only response must be to deconstruct each announcement in detail and deal with it in slow time.

Take a look at what the government said:

Civil servant vanity photographer, Andy Parsons, was sacked and immediately rehired by Tory central office. He was joined by civil servant film maker Nicky Woodhouse. This is a humiliation for the prime minister. A degrading admission that he got it wrong – despite the advice of civil servants responsible for propriety and ethics in government.

In what appears to be a hurried statement, Ken Clarke announced to the House of Commons that he had reached an out of court settlement to pay the Guantamano Bay prisoners a secret amount of compensation running into millions of pounds. On a normal news cycle, journalists would be demanding to know how much and whether the prisoners received more than the 7/7 survivors were given in compensation.

The governor of the bank of England formally wrote to the government that it is a “concern that inflation is above target”. Which will be exacerbated next month when VAT is increased and petrol prices rise as a result. Ordinarily, white van men would be interviewed on petrol station forecourts up and down the land. Not yesterday.

And then Greater Manchester police announced that comprehensive spending review cuts would result in 1,387 uniformed police posts being axed, sending shockwaves around other police services in the country. Actually, this figure is so shocking that I suspect reaction to it will be reported for days and weeks to come in the north west. But it won’t be leading the front pages nationally. That would have been today.

Then there was the Redfern report – the one that tells the full scale of the nuclear industry’s old habit of secretly harvesting the body parts of nuclear workers without informing their loved ones. Imagine how on a normal news day this announcement would play out. Nuclear workers’ body parts systematically and secretly harvested for forty years? Even the Daily Mail might raise its eyebrows at that. On any other day.

When it comes to spin, Andy Coulson makes Alastair Campbell look like the eccentric old dame who volunteers to photocopy the parish magazine, such is his attention to the detail of news management. “We talk about our stories in great detail prior to publication”, Andy Coulson told the UK Press Gazette back in 2005. I can imagine his media grid meetings, stuffed with press officers and light on policy makers. They get great stories from the compliant Murdoch press but serious lobby journalists are picking up on the shallowness of their plans. It is for the opposition front bench rigorously to analyse each announcement.

We – her Imperial Majesty’s loyal opposition – must grin a bear days like yesterday and today. Our duty is to find loose strands of argument and pull at them. We already know from the child benefit debacle that this is a government that doesn’t want to be distracted by the detail. And that’s exactly how things begin to unravel for governments.

We know why detailed analysis of spun stories ultimately works for an opposition, because we suffered the consequences of it. There are countless examples where a tactical press announcement boiled over and left us in the stew.

When Tony Blair announced that all the people interned by the Japanese in the second world war would receive compensation, he was hailed as hero by the press the next day. There followed years of misery as lawyers, pressure groups and the public administration select committee argued with the MoD over the detail. What constituted citizenship? What level of proof was required to qualify for a payment, and so on. Lack of detail at the outset cost hundreds if not thousands of hours of misery for the poor civil servants who dealt with it.

Pulling at the strands of over-spun coalition announcement will tangle this administration up, leaving ministers over-burdened by the detritus of Number 10’s cynical spinners.

You probably won’t read as much as you should about Andy Parsons in today’s newspaper. But, make no mistake, we inflicted a defeat on the government yesterday. We did so because, after months of probing, we got to the facts, and David Cameron over-reached himself.

The genius of opposition is the devil of government: the detail. Yesterday’s lesson for our front bench is clear: read the small print.

Tom Watson is Labour MP for West Bromwich East.

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Sunday News Review

07/11/2010, 08:03:33 AM

Norman Tebbit mark two

Iain Duncan Smith will tomorrow unveil ‘compulsory community placements’ in an attempt to stop people living on benefits for years without bothering to look for work. The ‘Workfare UK’ project will be targeted at tens of thousands of people suspected of sabotaging attempts to make them work. But Labour MPs condemned the scheme. One said: ‘This sounds like slave labour.’ The scheme is also likely to run into fierce opposition from some Liberal Democrat MPs.

Under Mr Duncan Smith’s anti-scroungers blueprint, employment office chiefs will be given the power to order the long-term jobless to take part in four-week mandatory work schemes. The Government has not decided how much people on ‘community placements’ will be paid but it is understood the figure will be between £30 and £40 a week – the equivalent to £1 an hour, one sixth of the minimum wage. – Mail on Sunday

Last night the shadow work and pensions secretary, Douglas Alexander, suggested government policy on job creation was reducing people’s chances of finding work: “The Tories have just abolished the future jobs fund, which offered real work and real hope to young people. If you examine the spending review then changes such as cuts to working tax credit are actually removing incentives to get people into work. What they don’t seem to get about their welfare agenda is that without work it won’t work.” – Observer

Coulson on the brink

David Cameron faced renewed pressure over his decision to retain Andy Coulson as his communications chief last night after the former tabloid editor was questioned by police over allegations of phone-hacking at the News of the World. Labour raised the stakes when the party’s deputy leader, Harriet Harman, said it was now time for the prime minister to take a detailed interest in the controversy, rather than brushing aside claims about one of his closest aides. Downing Street confirmed that Coulson attended a meeting with Metropolitan police officers voluntarily on Thursday and was interviewed as a witness. He was not cautioned or arrested. – Observer

The Met’s attempt to help David Cameron’s chief spinner, Andy Coulson, in his brave battle to overcome amnesia (mercifully limited to the phone hacking that went on when he was editor of the News of the World) has not impressed Tom Watson. The stalwart Brownite MP smells a rat. “People will think it curious that the story [of his interview by the police at his solicitor’s office] was put out by Downing Street late on a Friday night when the BBC was on strike,” he observes. – Independent

Farrelly to face charges

A man involved in a brawl with Labour MP Paul Farrelly is to make an official complaint to police. Newspaper seller Bjorn Hurrell was left ‘bloodied and bruised’ after the incident in which he was allegedly hit by Mr Farrelly in a late-night tussle near a packed Commons bar.

Last night it was claimed the MP told Mr Hurrell ‘if we weren’t on the parliamentary estate, I’d punch you in the face’ moments before the fight. Speaking publicly for the first time about the incident, Mr Hurrell last night told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I am intending to make a complaint to the police and to instruct lawyers to pursue civil damages. I wish to make no further statement until I have obtained legal advice.’ – Mail on Sunday

The incident took place on Thursday evening as Mr Farrelly was entertaining guests from the Parliamentary Rugby Club at the Sports and Social bar, in the Palace of Westminster. The MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme claimed he was confronted by a man in a corridor near the club at around 10pm on Thursday, after reprimanding him about his behaviour. Mr Hurrell, who delivers newspapers in the Palace of Westminster and has had a full parliamentary pass for more than 20 years, told friends he had been enjoying a karaoke night he helped his mother organise in the Sports and Social bar when Mr Farrelly assaulted him.  – Telegraph

Miliband to the rescue

Ed Miliband has leaped to the defence of a DJ sacked from a Scottish radio station for taking part in a naked prank Robin Galloway and his producer Barrie Hodge parted company with Real Radio after the presenter filmed Hodge streaking naked behind Miliband while the politician was being interviewed in the Glasgow studios.

Miliband, who had his back to the incident, was not aware of what was going on at the time, and said the pair should not have lost their jobs. A spokesman for Scottish Labour said: “Senior staff from Ed’s office yesterday spoke to the station manager to say he thought they should not lose their jobs. – The Scotsman

Brown to battle on

Gordon Brown has quashed speculation that he will quit as an MP. The former PM has told allies he will stay in Parliament at least until the next election in 2015. He has already turned down new Labour leader Ed Miliband’s offer of a peerage and several lucrative jobs to concentrate on constituency and charity work. He told the Sunday Mirror: “Since the election I have been spending a lot of time with my constituents so it felt quite natural that I’d be talking about a Fife issue. But it was a surprise to me so many MPs were there.” – Mirror

Another selection goes wrong

A police probe has been launched into a complaint about fraud in the run-up to the selection in a Middlesbrough ward of Labour candidates for local government elections next year. The Labour Party has also launched an investigation into allegations of irregularities. The party has suspended the selection process for candidates in the ward as a result of the investigations. The police and Labour Party investigations are both focused on the town’s University Ward. – Middlesbrough Gazette

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The week Uncut

10/10/2010, 01:48:50 PM

This week was all about George and Vince. George’s child benefit cuts caused confusion throughout the Tory ranks. Dave said sorry. Vince’s incredible u-turn on university fees caused a shock wave throughout the Lib Dem ranks. Nick said nothing.

Ed got dealt his hand. 19 players picked by the PLP, with some big names left on the bench. He played his wildcard and rescued one or two of his campaign faithful. Gordon’s Scottish mafia are gone, the ‘new generation’ hail from Yorkshire.

Lower down the food chain, the junior shadow ministers should be named today, with lots of the ‘010 intake expected to make a showing.

In case you missed them, here are Uncut’s best read pieces of the last seven days:

Michael Dugher said Liam Fox is right (and George and Dave are wrong) on Defence cuts

Dan Hodges deconstructed the new shadow cabinet

Uncut gave you our pen portraits of the new front bench team

Philip Cowley talked us through the incumbency factor

Tom Watson wrote to David Cameron about the new Andy Coulson allegations

ITV News’ Alex Forrest took her baby somewhere funny

Tory  Margot James couldn’t quite figure out her own party’s child benefit cuts

Chris Bryant wrote a poem for national poetry day

Nick Keehan says we shouldn’t join the Tories in going soft on sentencing

Dave Howells gave us his take on Cameron’s big society big moment

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Tuesday News Review

05/10/2010, 07:42:00 AM

Coulson, the plot thickens

David Cameron’s media adviser Andy Coulson will face fresh claims today over his alleged involvement in the News of the World phone hacking scandal. Mr Coulson, Downing Street’s director of Government communications, has always denied knowledge of the practice during his time as editor of the Sunday tabloid. The newspaper’s former royal editor and a private investigator were jailed for hacking into the voicemails of celebrities. But an anonymous former executive at the Sunday tabloid has told Channel Four’s Dispatches programme that Mr Coulson was well aware of the practice, and even listened in to recordings of hacked messages so he could satisfy himself about the source of stories. – The Daily Mail

The former Labour minister, Tom Watson, has written to David Cameron, calling on the prime minister to make a statement in parliament about thelatest allegations against his media adviser Andy Coulson relating to theNews of the World phone-hacking affair. Watson, the Labour MP for West Bromwich East, said the new allegations made against Coulson – to be aired in an edition of Channel 4’s Dispatches tonight – were “new, far-reaching and warrant investigation”. – The Guardian

There’s lots of good stuff in Peter Oborne’s* Dispatches programme on the News of the World phone-hacking story even if, in the end and like many TV documentaries it over-reaches and tries too hard to build too large a conspiracy when simply laying out the established facts would seem enough. Nevertheless, it certainly deserves your time. – The Spectator

Osborne gives a little, takes a lot

The Mail’s front page this morning sets out the real challenge for the government over yesterday’s shock announcement by George Osborne on the withdrawal of child benefit from those who are paying tax at the higher rate. For as is well summed up in the headline it seems to be unfair and to penalise stay-at-home mums. The paper sums it up succinctly: “It will mean that any couple with one earner paid more than the £44,000 higher-rate tax threshold will lose their child benefit, even if the other stays at home and has no income. So two working parents each earning just under the higher-rate tax threshold could earn more than £80,000 and retain child benefit, while a household with just one income of £45,000 would lose theirs.” Such apparent unfairness touches a raw nerve – particularly in the “Mumsnet” community which has evolved into a powerful political force. – Political Betting

George Osborne was due soon, they’d just be getting him out of his portable coffin in the wings. But they needed some device to depress our expectations. A parade of the Undead! That would do the trick! The Treasury team of Gauke, Hoban and Greening lurched onstage groaning. They’re not dead but very far from alive. They gave a perfectly judged performance. And so he got a walk-on standing ovation. George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Some of us still aren’t used to that arrangement of words. His chinwork is more developed. His face a little broader but even more bloodless. He makes a grim statement and his mouth snaps shut like a trap. He does persist in those terrible old lines about the sun and the roof. And a new one, “Don’t give the keys back to the people who wrecked the car.” But he made another – yet another – game-changing speech. Perfectly triangulated to take the right with him in the first half, and the left in the second. – The Independent

But as always with an Osborne speech, there were subtle messages interwoven into the theme, like the barely audible double bass in a jazz riff. Or a slug of Drambuie in a bottle of vinegar. Lower taxes for the poor! Capital gains tax up! No retreat on the 50% rate! “We will not allow money to flow unimpeded into huge bonuses, if nothing is flowing out for small businesses, who did nothing to cause this crash!” Whole chunks that could have come from the Labour manifesto were slipped into the speech when no one was looking. As for the Lib Dems, people said he and Vince Cable would not get on. “We’d knife each other in the back, and try to end each other’s careers. What do they think we are? Brothers?” – The Guardian

Possible backlash over Clarke’s criminal justice reform

Ken Clarke may come face-to-face with the anger of Tory members today, when he makes the case for his liberal criminal justice policy at the party’s conference. The justice secretary faced condemnation from Tory backbenchers when he announced his intention to reduce short-term sentencing. He is supported in his efforts by Labour. Ed Miliband announced that he would support the former chancellor’s efforts last week. Some Labour figures believed the issue put the Conservatives on the wrong side of the law and order agenda – something of a role reversal given the way the two parties battled on the issue in the 80s. – Politics.co.uk


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Tom Watson’s letter to David Cameron on new Coulson allegations

04/10/2010, 12:04:32 PM

Ahead of tonight’s Dispatches ‘Tabloids, Tories, and Telephone Hacking’ , 8pm Channel 4, Tom Watson MP has written to David Cameron on the new allegations about Andy Coulson’s involvement in, or knowledge of, the practice of phone hacking at the News of the World.

Tom Watson Letter to David Cameron

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Monday News Review

04/10/2010, 08:10:19 AM

Hague picks on the brothers

William Hague says he will not nominate David Miliband for the post of European Union foreign minister, nor any other international job in the foreseeable future, scotching suggestions the defeated Labour leadership contender could be heading for Brussels. David Miliband may be regarded by Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, as “vibrant” and authoritative, but Mr Hague is far less smitten with the man who preceded him at the Foreign Office. “I’ve no personal quarrel with him,” Mr Hague tells the Financial Times. It is just that Mr Hague thinks that under Mr Miliband the Foreign Office was left financially stricken and marginalised in Whitehall, failed to build relations with emerging economies, and left Britain vulnerable to accusations it was complicit in torture. – The FT

NEWLY ELECTED Labour Party leader Ed Miliband faced a barrage of criticism yesterday from senior Conservative Party figures who will outline a multibillion-pound spending cuts programme later this month. They insisted Mr Miliband must produce a list of cuts that he will support if he is to build credibility with voters. The co-ordinated attacks upon Mr Miliband on the first day of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham came after early polling figures showed Labour now leading the Conservatives. Asking whether Mr Miliband would now say what he supports, foreign secretary William Hague said: “Or will he follow the unions who fixed the election for him, and Ed Balls and Gordon Brown who tutored him, in running away from the biggest problem facing the country and abandoning the centre ground of British politics?” – The Irish Times

Coulson listened to messages

Andy Coulson

Andy Coulson is alleged to have listened to hacked voicemail

The prime minister’s media adviser, Andy Coulson, personally listened to the intercepted voicemail messages of public figures when he edited theNews of the World, a senior journalist who worked alongside him has said. Coulson has always denied knowing about any illegal activity by the journalists who worked for him, but an unidentified former executive from the paper told Channel Four Dispatches that Coulson not only knew his reporters were using intercepted voicemail but was also personally involved. “Sometimes, they would say: ‘We’ve got a recording’ and Andy would say: ‘OK, bring it into my office and play it to me’ or ‘Bring me, email me a transcript of it’,” the journalist said. – The Guardian

(more…)

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The hacking-gate heroes: four men in search of a scandal

10/09/2010, 05:21:10 PM

The BBC refused to cover the News of the World hacking story till Tom Watson, Chris Byrant and the Guardian gave them no option.

Since then, their coverage has at best been haphazard. Having initially turned their back on it, they’ve subsequently failed to catch up.

None of the newspapers except the Guardian and, to a much lesser extent, the Independent, initially covered the new developments in the story. It’s a scandal so big that the New York Times has published thousands of words on it. But the British papers – including the ‘serious’ ones – nakedly refused, because it’s too close to home. Which the BBC – apparently not seeing this abrogation by the papers as a rupture in the fabric of democracy – didn’t report. (more…)

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